Those were the days: Remembering the ZX Spectrum

Ever since we decided to take a trip down memory lane and remember the Sinclair Spectrum - a machine that gave many of us our first taste of computing - we've been swamped by Reader Comments. (Technologies that Time Forgot: The ZX Spectrum http://www.silicon.com/a50344 )

You've opened your hearts, telling us stories of late-night adolescent gaming, machines turning up in unlikely places around the world, programming skills that are still used today, and much more.

One silicon.com subscriber, Brian Chappell, wrote to us about his days as the customer support consultant for the Sinclair range from 1986 to 1990.

He said: "The affection the Sinclair range engendered is legendary. The only contender for the title of 'most beloved' I have encountered has been the Mac - its users display that same fierce, protective love of their machines."

As well as talking about Spectrum emulators and the "now famous 'dead flesh' keyboard" Chappell added: "The thing that stays with me from that tail end of the Sinclair era is the sheer scale of market penetration. The ZX Spectrum was in particular hugely popular in the Third World. People today would shudder at some of the tasks assigned to the little Spectrum."

In fact, tales of home computers powering some near-mission critical systems around the world always crop up - some we always assume are urban myths.

However, another reader wrote: "Back in 1987 I recall a rather large hotel based near Heathrow [airport] using a Spectrum to drive the menu system on the guest room TVs! The screen font was unmistakeable."

On to the games in a moment, but one of the themes that has kept on cropping up is how the humble Spectrum turned on thousands of us to IT.

Dad Mike Shailes wrote: "At 35 I used 'Teach Yourself BASIC' and my son's Spectrum to produce what many months later I discovered was called a spreadsheet. Presented the annual marketing budget with a tape recorder, a TV and the Spectrum." From there, Shailes went on to bigger things - he now owns and runs a website design company.

A common tale is of the home computer as homework tool turned bane of parents and teachers alike. One reader, caught with computer magazines in class at school, was told by his teacher that he "wouldn't learn anything like that" and his Spectrum would "wreck" his life.

He said: "I left school early to work in computers and I've had a happy 17-year career in IT, so I guess he was wrong. And all thanks to the Spectrum."

Similarly, Allan McBain insists time (his time, at least) never forgot the Speccy, saying: "When I outlined an in-house CRM programme for a major bank... guess what I based the logic on? The Spectrum BASIC applications I (very crudely) wrote 20 years before."

His only regret is that many of today's games emulators - which allow our processor-heavy PCs and other computers to run old games at the right speed - don't always work well.

And it was the Spectrum games nearly all of you couldn't help but mention. Sure, some readers reckon the BBC Micro or the Commodore 64 (though not Vic 20!) were better machines but even one rival enthusiast remembers: "The Beeb was far better for learning to program on than the Speccy, although Speccy prolly had the better games."

Attic Attack, Frankenstein, Harrier Attack, Head over Heels, The Hobbit, Hungry Horace, Jet Set Willy, Lords of Midnight, Manic Miner and the Dizzy series - we could go on for hours. Who knows how many of the UK's leading games software coders began their careers programming in the early eighties on a Spectrum or rival machine.

The penultimate word should go to one of the several readers - all of whom posted comments as 'Anon' - who still use a Spectrum. One reminisces about Frankenstein ("The playability was fantastic, it was totally inoffensive to all ages and it rocked!!!") and said: "I still have my ZX Spectrum+ and it even works. Maybe tonight I'll give it a run again, just for old times sake."

And Gary Mackman is one of the ongoing breed of Spectrum die-hards who's also an owner of that most-lambasted of Sinclair inventions, the C5. Now it may be another Technology That Time Forgot, and we may give over a few page inches to the Segway Human Transporter (aka Ginger) but we'll stick with the Spectrum and its ilk for now.

Mackman signs off with his hopes for one part of the kit, that 'dead flesh' keyboard. "That rubber keyboard was something that I thought all keyboards would have. I spilled tons of stuff on it and it never broke," he recalled.

And we thought we'd progressed since then.